Question for Miss Manners (or Church Lady): It seem inappropriate to wish someone a “happy” Lent or Ash Wednesday. So, how best to acknowledge the onset of this penitential period? Feel free to offer suggestions below.
President Obama went with the “Michelle and I join with millions of Christians…” tack. Wonder what the first family will be giving up for Lent? I kinda like this blogger’s idea. He’s kicking it Bavarian monk-style and subsisting only on beer. Don’t worry folks, it’s a heavy beer (they call it “liquid bread”).
In heavier news, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has suspended 21 priests who were named as child molestation suspects in what is likely the largest mass suspension in the church’s history in the U.S. Cardinal Rigali called the suspension “interim measures,” emphasizing that they are not “final judgements.” Still, Whispers in the Loggia quotes an unnamed U.S. bishop on the damage done: “Now the scandal is amplified ten-fold…” If you remember, sex abuse allegations hit the church last year during Lent as well.
As the congressional hearings on homegrown Islamic radicalism approach, a former FBI counter-terrorism director says Rep. Peter King’s claim that American Muslims don’t cooperate with law enforcement is bunk. Japanese Americans, remembering their internment during WWII, call the hearings “similarly sinister.” King said the hearings will be fair. “If there is going to be animosity, I would blame it on my opponents,” saith the King.
A Muslim group launched a website aimed at tracking anti-Muslim rhetoric, especially slurs that issue from the mouths of politicians.
Clashes broke out in Egypt as a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Christians protesting the burning of a Cairo church. Thirteen people have been killed and 140 injured, according to the AP.
A staff sergeant was wrong to banish dozens of soldiers to clean-up detail after they refused to attend a Christian concert on a Virginia Army base last year, an investigation concluded, according to AP. Sarah Palin is slated to deliver a “testimony of faith” at a religious conference in Lynchburg, Va. this fall.
The first wave of about 600 Anglicans are leaving the Church of England in protest of the consecration of women as bishops and enrolling in a new branch of the Catholic Church, the BBC reports.
Canadian Anglicans will debate whether baptism should be required to receive the Eucharist. No word yet on whether dogs will make the Communion cut. The Bishop of Albany (N.Y.) said it’s inappropriate to comment publicly on the eligibility of Catholic politicians who run afoul of church teaching (such as Gov. Cuomo) to receive the sacrament.
The new Catholic Bible does more than cast “booty” overboard, it also employs more inclusive gender language, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A South Carolina man is in trouble for using pages from the Bible to roll a joint in jail. Someone stole a lot of cash from a Spanish convent.
A new dating website puts the matchmaking in Jewish mothers’ hands.
